That is a recurring theme in "The Earth's Best Story," released in March by Chelsea Green Publishing.

The Koss brothers will be back in the Mid-Hudson Valley tonight at 6:30, signing copies of their book at the Ellenville Public Library at 40 Center Street. A public reception will follow at Aroma Thyme Bistro at 8:30 p.m.

The twins will also be at Barnes and Noble Booksellers on Ulster Avenue Friday at 7 p.m.

In each of their appearances, they hope their words will inspire other entrepreneurs to stick with their dreams, even during hard times.

The brothers, no doubt, had their share, but as their story unfolds, it becomes clear that strong conviction kept them going.

"We were empowered by a vision of creating something we thought babies should have. That was our beacon," Ron Koss said in a recent telephone interview from his Vermont home.

It all started out with the strong values the Koss brothers had been taught as nice Jewish boys growing up in Ellenville.

"The Golden Rule stands out as a memory, and the Ten Commandments were well learned in Hebrew school," Koss recalls in the book.

It was only when they got to college that the Koss brothers began questioning all the "right" things.

Ron left the State University of New York at Albany with only nine credits to go. Arnie quit Wilkes College in his freshman year.

Together, they embarked on a trip across America to find meaning for their lives. It was during the early 1970s, a time when the counterculture had challenged long-held values.

"I was homeless during these wandering years," Ron says on page seven.

"My childhood home in Ellenville, New York, had been sold in 1970. My parents, Milton and Judith, moved to south Florida. And the close circle of friends and community in Ellenville, which nurtured me far more than I ever realized, disappeared virtually overnight."

One dramatic outcome of the cross-country trip was a deep environmental awakening.

"We were overwhelmed by the aerial spraying and all the other abuses we saw," Koss said. "It was not something we had seen a lot in our hometown of Ellenville."

At about this time, Koss and his brother began wondering what they could do to make a difference.

It clicked for them in 1976. Why not feed the youngest of generations good, wholesome, fresh food?

"It was a big idea. Arnie and I understood that it would not only be good for babies, but a good way to help organic farmers improve their return on their crops," Koss said.

Clever as it was, it would take the Koss twins eight years and several odd jobs in between before they'd see any movement.

The first step was picking a location. They wanted the "good life," so they chose Vermont.

The pristine land in New England was fertile ground for their first business, an alfalfa sprout farm, and later, for Arnie's shaker broom-making venture.

But the idea of organic baby food kept crawling across their brains, so they set out to find investors.

One was a Vermont mill owner, who put $25,000 on the line to get them started. After that, the brothers ended up raising $300,000 in seed money to do all the recipe work, design work and legal and accounting work to make Earth's Best a reality. Another investor from Massachusetts threw in $100,000.

Money was now rolling in. The year was 1987, and Earth's Best organic baby food occupied an 11,000-square-foot food processing plant in Middlebury. The Koss brothers found growers in Maryland and Canada. They started producing three fruit and two vegetable purees.

The baby steps now became giant steps. Earth's Best was the largest start-up company in Vermont's history.

"We had high hopes, and we hired an amazing group of people, who connected to the ... importance of organic baby food and were totally committed to Earth's Best," Koss said.

Meanwhile, at the grocery stores, Earth's Best baby food jars, which sold for $1.10 each, were collecting dust. By comparison, Gerber and Beech-Nut were priced at $.69 a jar.

Then came the probing CBS report in 1989 that eventually led the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of Alar on food crops.

"I think it was an important moment in time," Koss said. "Did it change the world? No, but I think it brought to the attention of millions of people all at once the danger of pesticide spraying to food and children," Koss said.

"We were the only organic baby food company and it showed that we were leading. We were pioneering, and the other companies really had to be more on the defensive."

That's not the ending to the Koss brothers' story. In order to keep Earth's Best moving forward, they had to sell more and more of their own interests in the company.

They eventually lost control of it. In 1996, the H.J. Heinz Company bought Earth's Best, and then in 2000, the Hain Celestial Group, bought the Earth's Best brand and developed other products.

Today, the Koss brothers still serve as consultants to the Hain Celestial Group. Ron also works in product development and research. Even now, the twins continue to regard their story as a success.

"Arnie and I did not become rich in the financial sense, but we have incredible satisfaction everyday knowing that our ... dreams are actually living in the world, and millions of babies have been fed Earth's Best. It feels so satisfying to know that all that effort and sacrifice have bore fruit," Koss said.

"Every agony along the way was worth the ecstasy of that experience. It is an encounter every entrepreneur should aim for--the ecstasy, that is."

For more information on the Koss brothers' appearance today, call the Ellenville Public Library and Museum at (845) 647-5530. For the Kingston book signing, call (845) 336-0590. To learn more about Ron and Arnie Koss and Earth's Best, go to the website http://www.theearthsbeststory.com.